Sunderman ConServatory Wind Symphony

Russell McCutcheon, ConductorMarc Decker, Conductor-in-Residence

Saturday, February 28, 2015 • 8:00 P.M.maJeStiC theater, GettySBurG, pa

the Sunderman ConServatory of muSiCat GettySBurG ColleGe presents

Wind Band Masterworks

Easter Monday on the White House Lawn ..................................................John Philip Sousa(1854-1932)

Divertimento for Band, Op. 42 .................................................................Vincent Persichetti(1915-1987)

I. Prologue II. Song III. Dance IV. Burlesque V. Soliloquy VI. March

Old Wine in New Bottles ..................................................................................Gordon Jacob(1895-1984)

I. The Wraggle-Taggle Gypsies II. The Three Ravens III. Begone, Dull Care IV. Early One Morning

Sunderman Chamber Winds

Lincolnshire Posy ............................................................................................ Percy Grainger(1882-1961)

I. Dublin Bay (Lisbon) II. Horkstow Grange III. Rufford Park Poachers IV. The Brisk Young Sailor V. Lord Melbourne VI. The Lost Lady Found

program

John Philip Sousa (1854-1932)

John Philip Sousa (1854-1932) was an American arranger, composer, conductor, business man, and patriot. Although respected for all of his musical achievements, he is particularly honored for composing tuneful marches, directing the Marine Band, and his own professional band. John Philip Sousa was the son of John Antonio Sousa, a trombonist in the Marine Band, and Mary Elizabeth Trinkhaus. From a young age he studied violin, piano, flute, cornet, baritone, trombone, and alto horn, as well as music theory, harmony, and voice. In 1880 he was appointed leader of the Marine Band, a position he held for almost twelve years before organizing his own professional band. The Sousa Band, as it was called, was a highly significant ensemble that not only performed locally in Washington DC, but throughout Canada and Europe on various world tours.

Along with his ability to organize and conduct superb musicians, Sousa developed a distinct flair for writing marches, of which he wrote 136. He seemed instinctively to know how to compose for wind instruments, and his style, full of bouncing rhythms, brilliant instrumentation, and catchy tunes, has kept a large number of his marches popular ever since.

Easter Monday on the White House Lawn (1929)

Many composers alter their own works often years after the originals have been performed; however, John Philip Sousa seldom did this. One exception was his edition of Easter Monday on the White House Lawn as the third movement of a larger work, Tales of a Traveler, composed seventeen years earlier. Easter Monday on the White House Lawn was originally called Coronation March. Sousa anticipated that it would be played for the coronation of King George V of England, but while en route to South Africa on the Sousa Band’s 1910-1911 world tour he received a royal rejection. Coronation March was given a new title, Grand Promenade at the White House. After being altered and receiving several name changes, it was finally added in 1929 as the third movement of Tales of a Traveler.

Easter egg-rolling in Washington DC is an American tradition still upheld today by President Obama and initiated by First Lady Dolly Madison in 1816. In the original format, children would roll colored eggs with spoons outside the Capitol building, and the child with the fastest egg wins. In 1880 the 44th Congress installed new landscaping and therefor banned egg-rolling outside the Capitol building. As a result, President Rutherford B. Hayes invited children to continue this exciting activity on the White House Lawn. In 1889 President Benjamin Harrison introduced music for the event with Sousa directing the Marine Band. Sousa’s memories are recorded in the notes he added to Sousa Band programs when Easter Monday on the White House Lawn was featured on the 1928 tour: “With the children rolling eggs, dancing and romping, a scene of animation persists itself: the elders, from the President to the merest passersby, look on the scene with joy and pleasure.”

program notes

Vincent Persichetti (1915-1987)

Vincent Persichetti (1915-1987) was one of America’s most respected 20th-century composers. His contributions enriched the entire music literature; his influence as a conductor, teacher, scholar, and keyboard virtuoso is universally acknowledged. In addition to well-known works for a variety of other media, Persichetti composed 16 major concert works for band.

Persichetti was the first of three children. His parents were immigrants from Italy and Germany. He began studying piano at the age of five and gradually added organ, double bass, tuba, theory, and composition to his music studies. By the age of 11 he was performing professionally as an accompanist, radio staff pianist, and church organist. Persichetti conducted the orchestra and taught theory and composition at Combs College (1937), headed the composition department at the Philadelphia Conservatory (1941-1961), and also taught at the Julliard School of Music as composition teacher (1947) and chairman (from 1963). His manual Twentieth-Century Harmony: Creative Aspects and Practices and his Essays on Twentieth-Century Choral Music are widely known.

Nicolas Slonimsky described Persichetti’s music as being “remarkable for its polyphonic skill in fusing the seemingly incompatible idioms of classicism, romanticism, and stark modernism…(with) Italianate diatonicism, in a lyrical manner.” Approximately 120 of Persichetti’s works have been published; over half were commissioned. Compositions include 16 band scores, nine symphonies, four string quartets, two piano sonatas, choral works, and much chamber music.

Divertimento for Band, Op. 42 (1950)

Divertimento is one of Persichetti’s lightest and most entertaining works. It was written in a log cabin schoolhouse in Kansas in 1949 and premiered by the Goldman Band in Central Park, New York City, the composer conducting, on June 16, 1950. In a June 1980 letter to Frederick Fennell, Persichetti wrote, “Divertimento was completed in 1950 (but most of it was written…in El Dorado, Kansas, in 1949)….The work was not commissioned! I was writing a piece in which the brasses were tossing the woodwinds about while the timpani were commenting. I began to realize that the strings were not going to enter. I guess when strings do not enter into such a combination, one calls the medium ‘Band.’ The word ‘Band’ has always sounded good to me….”

The six short movements (Prologue, Song, Dance, Burlesque, Soliloquy, and March) demonstrate rhythmic and contrapuntal savoir-faire blended neatly with tongue-in-cheek humor and lyrical nostalgia. The work was Persichetti’s first for band and is still one of his most popular compositions.

Gordon Jacob (1895-1984)

The career and life of Gordon Jacob (1895-1984) exemplifies that of a great educator and composer. As a youth he studied at the Royal Conservatory of Music (RCM) taking composition lessons from Sir Charles Villiers Stanford (1852-1924), music theory from Herbert Howells (1892-1983), conducting from Adrian Boult (1889-1983), and a year of composition with Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958). Shortly after graduation he was recognized for his talents and appointed to the music faculty at the RCM. Jacob remained there for 42 years teaching theory, composition, and orchestration. During his life he wrote college textbooks on orchestration, instructed many individuals who would eventually become famous musicians, and composed about 400 works for instruments and voice.

Jacob utilized diverse and mostly conservative compositional techniques within a tonal framework. He favored transparent formal structures, recognizable melodies often borrowed from preexisting tunes, and extended tertiary harmonies. Common compositional tools include loosely structured imitation, augmentation and fragmentation of thematic material, lush countermelodies, unexpected harmonies, and juxtaposition of theme groups. Although superficially simple in design, Jacob utilized contemporary devices such as cluster chords, quartal and quintal harmonies, and melodic inversion to enhance the form. Overall, Gordon Jacob’s compositions are regarded for a mastery of texture and orchestration with a firm knowledge of the abilities and limitations of each instrument.

Old Wine in New Bottles (1959)

Gordon Jacob composed Old Wine in New Bottles (1959) when he was 64 years old for the St. Bees Festival of Music. The festival was hosted by the St. Bees School, a coeducational grammar school, located in St. Bees Village on the coast of Cumbria near the English and Scottish border. In 1959, Donald Leggat, the music director at St. Bees School, approached his friend Gordon Jacob to compose a piece for the festival. "Old Wine in New Bottles" premiered April 4, 8:00 pm, in Rawnsley Hall, located in the nearby village of Keswick. The premiere was conducted by Donald Leggat and the membership consisted of mostly members of the St. Bees Symphony Orchestra; however, two of Donald Leggat’s former pupils – Timothy Reynish and Guy Woolfenden – played French horn.

The premiere performance was entirely successful and the following week received a gleaming review in the local paper: "It is not often to-day that a new work is the most popular in any concert programme. But Gordon Jacob’s “Old Wine in New Bottles” written specially for the festival amply deserved its success. This is a suite of four folk-song settings for woodwind and brass in which the composer displays all the dexterity of instrumental writing and harmonic ingenuity for which his music is well known. “The Raggle Taggle Gypsies,” “The Three Ravens,” and “Begone Dull Care” formed the basis of three well-contrasted movements. The final “Early One Morning” blended discreet sentiment, wit, and high spirit with a felicitous craftsmanship in a manner which recalled that of a Haydn finale."

Percy Aldridge Grainger (1882-1961)

Percy Grainger (1882-1961) was an Australian born pianist and composer from Melbourne. In his youth he was a talented pianist and was able to secure funding to study in the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt. In 1901, after completing his studies in piano performance and theory, he moved to London where he established himself as a concert pianist. Grainger was highly successful as a concert pianist during this time and throughout his entire life, often better known as a concert pianist then a composer. In 1914 Grainger came to America in an attempt to avoid the First World War. He could not avoid serving, so he enlisted in the US Army Band from 1917-1919 where he played oboe, soprano saxophone, and eventually became director. Afterwards, Grainger continued his career as a concert pianist and was able to establish himself as a significant composer.

Grainger was a prolific composer with many arrangements, editions, transcriptions, original compositions, and folk song settings to his name. His best known works are arrangements of folk music he collected during his various trips across the countryside. Some of these include Country Gardens (1919), Irish Tune from County Derry (1911), I’m Seventeen Come Sunday (1905), Lincolnshire Posy (1937), and Molly on the Shore (1947). Grainger’s settings are known for capturing the spirit of the original folk singers with a flexible approach to meter and rhythm, often unpredictable and dissonant harmonies, and tuneful melodies.

Lincolnshire Posy (1937)

As the composer himself has written, this is a “bunch of musical wildflowers” based on folk songs collected in Lincolnshire, England, in 1905-06. Grainger was a picturesque nationalist who tried to retain something of the original flavor of British folk songs and their singers by strict observance of peculiarities of performance such as varying beat lengths and the use of “primitive” techniques such as parallelism.

The first movement, Lisbon Bay, is a sailor’s song in a brisk 6/8 meter with “plenty of lilt.” The song is presented several times with changing accompaniment. The second song is entitled Horkstow Grange, or The Mister and His Man, a Local Tragedy. The accents shift constantly throughout as the number of quarter notes in a measure changes from four to five to three and back again. The third song, Rufford Park Poachers, is the longest and most complex of the settings. The instrumentation emphasizes the piccolo in a high register playing with the solo first clarinet three octaves lower. This tune is accompanied by itself in canon by the E-flat clarinet and bass clarinet. It is a unique musical sound and idea.

The fourth song, The Brisk Young Sailor, is rather simple in contrast to the previous song. The fifth song, Lord Melbourne, begins in free time, “heavy and fierce.” The conductor is instructed to vary his beat lengths as folk singers do. The sixth and last song, The Lost Lady Found, is the most conventional setting of all. It is in straight 3/4 meter, with usual accompaniment patterns.

Russell McCutcheon is Director of Bands in the Sunderman Conservatory of Music at Gettysburg College in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. At Gettysburg, he conducts the Wind Symphony, Sunderman Conservatory Symphony Band, and the Sunderman Chamber Winds. He also directs the Bullets Marching Band. In addition, he teaches conducting, music education courses, supervises student teachers in the field, and serves as co- advisor of the Gettysburg College Chapter of the Collegiate Music Education Association.

Dr. McCutcheon received his Ph.D. in Music Education with a concentration in Wind Conducting from the University of Florida in Gainesville where he served as Assistant Conductor of the Wind Symphony. He was in the conducting studio of Dr. David Waybright and his music education advisors were Drs. Russell Robinson and Charles Hoffer. Additionally, he has studied conducting with Rodney Winther, Anthony Maiello, and Tom Lee. He received his Master of Science in Music Education from Troy University in Troy, Alabama.

Prior to his appointment in the Sunderman Conservatory, Dr. McCutcheon served for three years as Associate Director of Band, Wind and Percussion Activities at Otterbein University in Westerville, Ohio and has eight years of high school teaching experience in the public schools. Bands under his direction have performed in England, Scotland, Italy, and Switzerland. He has been a guest conductor at the WASBE 2005 International Conference in Singapore and in 2009spent nine days in residence as invited guest conductor/clinician with the Universidad de Caldas Wind Ensemble in Manizales, Colombia as part of the 15th Annual Yamaha Latin American Wind Band Conference.

Dr. McCutcheon is the founding conductor of the Atlantic Chamber Winds, whose latest recording, Volume 1 of The Cochran Chamber Winds Commissioning Series, was released in 2012 on the Mark Masters Label. Of this recording, composer Adam Gorb noted: “I loved your performance of French Dances Revisited…your ensemble plays the work so sensitively and with such spirit.” He is a regular contributor to the best-selling book series, “Teaching Music through Performance in Bands,” and is an active clinician and guest conductor. He has been the featured clinician/conductor for many county and district honor bands, was invited to serve as the winds and percussion clinician for the Ohio All-State Orchestra, travels regularly to music camps nationally, and adjudicates band festivals in Pennsylvania, Virginia, Ohio, Florida, Mexico and the Bahamas. As a percussionist, he most recently served as principal timpanist of the Westerville Symphony (Ohio) and is currently experimenting with electronic percussion controllers, MIDI mallet keyboard instruments and the integration of pre-recorded sound with live performance.

Biographies

Marc Decker is a Conductor in Residence in the Sunderman Conservatory of Music at Gettysburg College in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. During the current spring 2015 term he conducts the Wind Symphony, Symphonic Band, and Sunderman Chamber Winds. Dr. Decker is also the Director of Bands at American University in Washington, DC. He directs the Symphonic Band, ‘Screamin’ Eagles’ Pep Band, coaches the AU Chamber Winds, teaches general education courses in music, and instructs applied lessons in conducting. Aside from his responsibilities at AU, he is an active clinician, guest conductor, and adjudicator throughout the Washington DC area.

Before moving to the East Coast, Dr. Decker was a graduate assistant at the University of Iowa. There he guest conducted the various concert ensembles, directed the Iowa Pep Band, and assisted in the daily operation of the 260-member ‘Hawkeye’ Marching Band. During this time he studied conducting with the Richard Mark Heidel and drill design with Kevin Kastens.

Prior to coming to Iowa, Dr. Decker was Director of Bands at South Haven High School in South Haven, Michigan. He directed the ‘Purple Pride’ Marching Band, the high school concert bands, jazz bands, and coached chamber ensembles. The bands at South Haven earned superior ratings at the Michigan School Band and Orchestra Association festivals during his tenure. Dr. Decker’s professional affiliations include the College Band Directors National Association, National Association for Music Education, Maryland Bandmasters Association, Maryland Music Educators Association, National Band Association, Iowa Bandmasters Association, Pi Kappa Lambda, and Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia.

Piccolo Marisa Shultz `17

Flute Meghan Riley `17 P †Laura Schulz `18Marisa Shultz `17

OboeKristina Chamberlin `17 PClare Diederich `18 Hannah Harder `18

English HornKristina Chamberlin `17 P

E-flat ClarinetBrittany Barry ‘17

ClarinetBrittany Barry `17Julie Blum `15 PAngelo D`Amato, Jr. `16Isaac Hawkins `18 ‡Danielle Mong `15Will Morris `18Caroline Valenti `18

Bass ClarinetAnna Kane `15

Contrabass ClarinetAnna Kane `15

BassoonGraham BoudreauNicolas de Groot `18 P Rhett Maiorana `16

Wind Symphony personnel Major English

Music EducationMusic EducationEnglish

PsychologyComputer ScienceMusic

Psychology

Music Education

Music EducationEnvironmental Studies & MusicEnglishMusic EducationFrench & AnthropologyPhysics & MusicMusic

Computer Science

Computer Science

Community MemberMusic PerformanceEconomics

Hometown Clarksville, MD

Madison, NJPortsmouth, RIClarksville, MD

New Milford, CTMiddletown, MDWinston-Salem, NC

New Milford, CT

Nesconset, NY

Nesconset, NYWestbrook, CTLancaster, PASteelton, PALansdale, PACarlisle, PANew Fairfield, CT

Warminster, PA

Warminster, PA

Orrtanna, PAMiddletown, CTFairport, NY

Alto SaxophoneEmily Grant `15Paul Lessard `16 PColin Messinger `17

Tenor SaxophoneDoug Kowalewski `18

Baritone SaxophoneRei Phillippi `16

TrumpetPatrick Dooley `16 PChelsea Ferraro `18Priscilla C. KingAndrew Mahoney `17Josh Spry `17

HornSigne Carlson `15 ‡Sabrina D’Mello `18Lucas Gaylor `18 PDavid Heim `16

TromboneDavid Dalton `15 P † ‡Lani Deatherage `18Blake Thatcher `17

EuphoniumAlex Schweizer `17 P ‡

TubaMarty Caldwell `15 PMarc Tessier `18

PianoEddie Holmes `18

MajorMusicMusic & PhysicsComputer Science

History & Psychology

Music Education

Music Music EducationGuest ArtistBiochemistry & Molecular BiologyMusic

German StudiesChemistryChinese StudiesPolitical Science & History

MusicMusicSpanish

Music Education

PsychologyMusic

Music Education

HometownMiddletown, NJWaynesboro, PAHanover, PA

Crucible, PA

State College, PA

Cranford, NJTower City, PAYork, PACollegeville, PALa Cañada, CA

Gettysburg, PARandolph, NJPerry Hall, MDHagerstown, MD

Hatfield, PAYork, PAAfton, VA

Downingtown, PA

Columbia, MDConcord, NH

North Andover, MA

Double BassScott Kaliszak `16 ‡

HarpClaire Heath `17

PercussionSkyler Ehly `18 ‡Julia Giannini `18Brian Gould `15 PBen Litwin `15

MajorMusic Education

Music Performance

Computer ScienceUndeclaredMusicEconomics & Public Policy

HometownNew Freedom, PA

Belle Mead, NJ

Reamstown, PASchwenksville, PAWest Orange, NJWilmington, DE

Wind Symphony musicians are listed alphabetically to emphasize the equal contribution of each member.P=Principal Player †= Wind Symphony Executive Board ‡=Band Staff

upCominG Sunderman ConServatory event

March 1 • 2:00pm Senior Recital – Rebecca Divas, soprano, Paul Recital HallMarch 20 • 7:30pm Faculty Recital – Jocelyn Swigger, piano, Paul Recital Hall

March 21 • 8:00pm College Choir Spring Concert, Christ ChapelMarch 22 • 2:30pm Senior Recital – Emma Raver, clarinet, Paul Recital Hall

March 29 • 7:30pm 7th Annual Concerto Competition, Paul Recital HallApril 4 • 7:00pm Senior Recital – Brian Gould, percussion, Paul Recital HallApril 4 • 8:30pm Senior Recital – Emily Grant, saxophone, Paul Recital HallApril 10 • 7:45pm Senior Recital – James Nguyen, violin, Paul Recital Hall

April 11 • 8:00pm April in Paris – Jazz Ensemble Concert, Majestic Theater April 12 • 3:00pm Symphony Band Concert, Majestic Theater

April 12 • 7:00pm Percussion Ensemble Concert, Majestic TheaterApril 17 • 8:00pm Wind Symphony Concert, Majestic Theater

April 18 • 8:00pm Symphony Orchestra Concert, Majestic TheaterApril 19 • 2:30pm Spring Choral Concert, Christ Chapel

April 24 • 7:30pm Opera Scenes, Majestic TheaterApril 25 • 8:00pm Jazz Dispatch Concert, Paul Recital Hall

April 26 • 4:00pm Senior Recital – William Lundberg, baritone, Paul Recital HallApril 29 • 5:00pm 2015 Annual Student Conductor Concert, Paul Recital Hall

May 1 • 2:00pm Gamelan Concert, Musselman Library Outside

For Information 717.337.6815 • www.gettysburg.edu/sunderman or www.gettysburgmajestic.org

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Sunderman ConServatory BandSupCominG performanCeS

Sunday, April 12, 2015 | 3:00pmSunderman Conservatory Symphony Band

Winds of SpringDr. Marc Decker, Conductor-in-Residence

A concert of traditional favorites and exciting new music for large concert band.

Friday, April 17, 2015 | 8:00pmSunderman Conservatory Wind Symphony

Music for Winds and Percussion Marc Decker, Conductor-in-Residence

Russell McCutcheon, ConductorFeaturing Colin Wise, Trombone soloist

Bells Across the Atlantic – Adam Gorb (commission premiere) | Dance Movements – Phillip Sparke Capriccio for Solo Trombone and Wind Ensemble – Frank Gulino | Fantastic Polka – Arthur Pryor

Wednesday, April 29, 2015 | 5:00pmSunderman Conservatory Wind Symphony

Annual Student Conductors Concert

Enjoy a late afternoon of music with the Wind Symphony, prepared and ledentirely by student conductors. Concert held in Paul Recital Hall, Schmucker Hall.

All concerts are held in the Majestic Theatre unless otherwise noted.

For more information, visit us on the web at www.gettysburg.edu/music/bands.Find us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/sundermanconservatory.

Enjoy performances of all the bands at Gettysburg College on ourYouTube Channel at www.youtube.com/gettysburgbands.